August 19, 2008
ROANOKE, Va. (August 19, 2008) – Friendship Retirement Community, the largest and most comprehensive providers of care-giving for seniors in the region, has earned the American Health Care Association and the National Center For Assisted Living’s Quality Award for demonstrating a strong commitment to continuous quality improvement at its Eastwood Assisted Living facility.
“These Quality Awards, comprised of three levels, are the most prestigious recognition of quality within the long-term care profession,” said Bruce Yarwood, president and CEO of the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living. “Friendship’s Step I award shows their dedicated frontline caregivers, administrators, nurses and physicians are demonstrating a commitment to quality of care and meeting the needs for our nation’s most vulnerable population.”
As a Step 1 Quality Award recipient, Friendship demonstrated an organization-wide commitment to a resident-focused facility mission, defined its principal customers and their expectations, and indicated ways that it is striving to meet their needs.
“This nationally recognized award is a testament to our outstanding staff and the care they provide every day to our residents at Friendship’s Eastwood Assisted Living facility,” says Stan Huffman, CEO of Friendship Retirement Community. “What’s remarkable is that Eastwood is one of just two assisted living facilities in Virginia to receive the Step 1 award this year.” The AHCA/NCAL Quality Award was created in 1996 and is modeled after criteria from the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s premier recognition for quality achievement. The Quality Award is an independently judged, criteria-based award program relying extensively on approximately 100 volunteer-trained examiners.
The AHCA/NCAL award recognizes commitment to a continuous quality improvement process at nursing facilities, assisted living residences, and residences for persons with mental retardation or developmental disabilities.
Friendship will be honored for its achievement and presented with the award during the AHCA/NCAL convention Oct. 5-8 in Nashville, Tenn.